Marcel Winatschek

After Hannah

I’ve seen Miley Cyrus naked so many times I’ve basically memorized her body. And yeah, I know exactly what that makes me, and I’m not sorry about it. But there’s more going on with the Plastik shoot than just the nudity, and that’s what keeps me thinking about it.

She was Hannah Montana once. Locked down, manufactured, Disney’s perfect untouchable princess. Now she’s the kind of woman who walks into a photoshoot with Vijat Mohindra and takes it all off without blinking. Vijat’s shot everyone—Rihanna, Selena, Lindsay Lohan, all these women who’ve been chewed up by the fame machine. He knows how to make them look powerful.

Wayne Michael Coyne’s in the shoot with her, the Flaming Lips guy. And it works because they both understand the same thing—that the only interesting way to exist in this world is to make people uncomfortable with what you do. He’s been doing it for decades. Miley’s newer to it, but she’s all in.

What gets me is how at ease she looks. Not posing, not performing—just existing naked in front of a camera, completely unselfconscious about who she is. The people who grew up watching Hannah Montana probably hate it. That’s kind of the whole point.